Preparing Primary Level Teachers for Inclusive Education in Bangladesh

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.06.1.4

 

 

 

Md Abu Bakor Siddika and Norimune Kawaia, b

 

a Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University, Japan

b Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University, Japan

 

(Received 19 October 2018, Final revised version received 12 November 2018)

 

The government of Bangladesh has introduced inclusive education for all government primary schools since 2010.Government primary school teachers in Bangladesh receive prerequisite programs and in-service training on inclusive education after obtaining their positions. This study aims to investigate teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes toward inclusive education in Bangladesh. Data were collected from 43 government primary schools in the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka district. A total of 311 teachers responded to the survey. This study examined challenges of teacher training in Bangladesh relating to self-efficacy and attitudes toward inclusive education. The results showed that there were no significant differences in teachers’ self-efficacy and attitudes toward inclusive education between the teachers who received prerequisite or in-service training on inclusive education and those who did not. In order to reform the training system, it is recommended to create more opportunity for teachers to work with students with disabilities, collaborate with other stakeholders, and introduce teachers to new teaching materials and methods during both prerequisite and in-service training periods.

Keywords: Inclusive education, TEIP, SACIE-R, teachers’ training, Bangladesh.

Seeking Practice Informed Policy for Inclusive Education in India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.05.1.2

 

 

 

Richard Rosea

 

a Professor of Inclusive Education, Centre for International Inclusive Pedagogy and Research, Faculty of Education and Humanities, University of Northampton, UK

 

(Received 01 February 2017, Final revised version received 05 May 2017)

                                                                       

The sustainable development Goals and directives including the Salamanca Statement have encouraged debate and policy development for the promotion of inclusive education. In India, initiatives introduced to support increased access to learning for children from disadvantaged groups, provide evidence of endeavour to challenge exclusion and create opportunities for all learners. The Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act reiterated the intention to ensure the provision of universal education. However, policy initiatives alone cannot achieve sustainable change. The adoption of western models of inclusion will have limited impact, and there is a need to understand practices that support inclusion in Indian schools. A systematic review of the literature, considered the need to develop an understanding of measures that are being adopted to promote inclusive education in India. It is suggested that whilst there is a significant corpus of literature that discusses inclusion as a concept, there is a limited empirical base from which to gain an understanding of those actions being taken to promote access to learning. The author recommends that research into pedagogical practice and a methodical approach to dissemination are essential to gain confidence in developing inclusive classrooms.

 

Key words: Inclusive education, India, pedagogical practice, education policy

Attitudes toward Inclusive Education: A Comparison of General and Special Education Teachers in Taiwan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.05.1.3

 

 

 

 

Chiu-Hsia Huanga and Roy K. Chenb

 

a Department of Special Education, National PingTung University, Taiwan

 

b School of Rehabilitation Services and Counseling, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA

        

(Received 01 November 2016, Final revised version received 16 June 2017)

         

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of general and special education teachers toward inclusive education of students with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities.  A total of 539 participants were recruited from teachers’ colleges and public schools in three prefectures of central and southern Taiwan.  The Attitudes toward Students with Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities Vignettes were used to assess the participants’ levels of acceptance of eight hypothetical students with various health issues and disabilities.  Descriptive and inferential statistics, including measure of central tendency, t-test, and multivariate analysis of variance, were used to interpret the data set.  Results indicate that both the types of teacher education programs and the teaching experience influence the willingness of the participants to include a student with special needs in the regular classroom setting.

 

Keywords: Inclusive education, attitudes, Taiwan, chronic illness, disability

Identifying and Verifying Functional Communication Behaviour in Two Hong Kong Chinese Children with Autism

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.05.1.4

 

 

 

Kathleen Taita

 

a Department of Education Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

  

(Received 21 February 2017, Final revised version received 26 June 2017)

          

This study examined the idiosyncratic and subtle behaviours of two young children with Autism living in Hong Kong SAR by combining the theoretical areas of prelinquistic communication and functional behaviour. It examined how Chinese mothers interpret the behaviour of their children as communicative. The forms and functions of prelinguistic communicative behaviour of the participants were assessed using the Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA). The children’s mothers completed the IPCA and the results were analyzed to provide a systematic inventory and objective description of the communicative forms and functions present in the children’s repertoire. The respondents reported a wide variety of communicative forms and functions. An innovative aspect of this study was the use of intra-subject replication as a method of verifying the accuracy of the respondents’ predictions. Problematic topographies were screaming and non-compliance. From an applied perspective there is a critical need to develop empirically validated and translated functional assessment procedures to enhance communication ability in children with Autism in Hong Kong SAR.

 

Key words: prelinguistic behaviour, communicative forms, communicative functions, communicative behaviours, Autism, Hong Kong SAR

Attributional style, positive illusory bias, and self-concept of children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.04.1.2

 

 

 

Angela F. Y. SIUa , Z. YANb and F. C. HOc

a Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese  University of Hong Kong.

b Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong.

c Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Special Education and Counseling, The Education University of Hong Kong

 

(Received 20 July 2015, Final revised version received 06 April 2016)

 

This study investigated the positive illusory bias, attribution of success and failure, and self-concept of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The participants were 85 primaryschool children, 45 of whom had been diagnosed with ADHD. The remaining 40 children made up the matched sample. The children in both groups were asked to work on two problem-solving tasks, one designated as ―easy‖ and the other as ―difficult,‖ and then to explain their success or failure in each task. A questionnaire was used to gather data on the children’s self-concept. Analysis of the children’s attributions of success and failure revealed no significant interaction between the groups (with ADHD vs. without ADHD) and locus of control (internal vs. external). However, children with ADHD tended to use external factors to explain their success, whereas those who did not have ADHD more frequently attributed their success to internal factors. Compared with children who did not have ADHD, children with ADHD scored much higher on various domains of self-concept, supporting recent findings on positive illusory bias. A Rasch analysis of the psychometric properties of the self-concept scale confirmed its suitability for use with the sample under study. Future research directions and practical implications are discussed.

 

Keywords: attributional style, positive illusory bias, self-concept, Rasch measurement, ADHD

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Promoting Inclusion of Ethnic Minority Children through Multilingual Education (MLE) in Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.04.1.3

 

 

 

 

Prashanta K. Tripuraa and Laila Farhana Apnan Banub

a Part-time Faculty, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, BRAC University.

b Education Officer, UNICEF Bangladesh.

 

(Received 15 February 2015, Final revised version received 30 August 2016)

 

At the policy level in Bangladesh, there is generally a supportive environment and commitment among all concerned for promoting inclusive education for ethnic minority children, many of whom experience – due to language barriers as well as poverty and social marginalization – various degrees of exclusion in accessing quality education services. The national education policy recognizes the need to pay special attention to ethnic minority children, and specifies that their respective languages would be taken into account when developing teaching-learning methods, materials and curriculum. However, there is currently no shared understanding among policy makers and practitioners as to what Multilingual Education (MLE) is and how it may be operationalized. In the absence of any well-articulated framework or clear guidelines, substantial differences have emerged in terms of the perceptions and practices of different organizations and service providers. In many cases, initiatives are taken based on ideas or assumptions that are not necessarily in line with international best practices or sound research evidences. Given the mismatch between policy provisions, their interpretations and ground realities, instead of bringing about intended benefits, many MLE initiatives underway actually have the potential for adverse educational effects on children who are already lagging behind and marginalized. Bringing some of the key issues at both policy and practice levels to light, this paper argues that a deeper analysis is called for to make necessary adjustments in existing provisions and interpretations for promoting inclusive education for ethnic minority children through MLE.

 

Keywords: Multilingual education, ethnic minority children

Dilemma and Challenges of Early Education Inclusion in Schools of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59595/ajie.04.1.4

 

 

 

Deepshikha Singha

a Research Associate, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

 

(Received 27 March 2016, Final revised version received 30 September 2016)

 

The main purpose of this paper is to present the specific dilemma and challenges experienced by teachers while practicing early education inclusion of young children with disabilities in the context of preschools and primary schools in Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The paper attempts to bring to light the important contextual realities of early education teachers‟ attitudes and practices towards inclusion of young children with disabilities. Examining the contextual realities of early education inclusion in schools of the capital city of Uttar Pradesh has implications to press forward the policy and programme level improvements to widely promote early intervention and early education inclusion at the State level. Based on the findings of this study, the paper presents an outline to counteract the existing indifference among teachers to include children with disabilities in early education settings. The paper is based on qualitative research design and the methods used included open-ended interview of teachers and observation in selected school settings. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data from interviews and observation.

Key words: Disability, Early education inclusion, Exclusion, Inclusive Policy, Teaching